Treatment in an automatic clothes dryer has been shown to be an effective means for imparting desirable tactile properties to fabrics. For example, it is becoming common to soften fabrics in an automatic clothes dryer rather than during the rinse cycle of a laundering operation. (See U.S. Pat. No. 3,442,692, Gaiser, issued May 6, 1969, incorporated herein by reference.)
Fabric "softness" is an expression well-defined in the art and is usually understood to be that quality of the treated fabric whereby its handle or texture is smooth, pliable and fluffy to the touch. Various chemical compounds have long been known to possess the ability to soften fabrics when applied to them during a laundering operation.
Fabric softness also connotes the absence of static "cling" in the fabrics, and the commonly used cationic fabric softeners provide both softening and antistatic benefits when applied to fabrids. Indeed, with fabrics such as nylon and polyester, the user is more able to perceive and appreciate an antistatic benefit than a true softening benefit.
Soil release treatment of fabrics in an automatic clothes dryer is not as common as softening treatment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,238,531, Rudy et al., issued Dec. 9, 1980, discloses in its Examples 8 and 9 a soil release agent adjuvant plus a "distributing aid," poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG). The key combination of fabric softening plus soil release treatment in one automatic clothes dryer product is not disclosed.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 022,615, Evans et al., filed Mar. 3, 1987, discloses dryer-added articles comprising fabric softening and soil release agents.